<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>A Lady Most Cherished by Ramzes</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739229">A Lady Most Cherished</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramzes/pseuds/Ramzes'>Ramzes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dragons Shine Best in the Sun [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Don't copy to another site, F/M, Multi, character exploration</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:40:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739229</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramzes/pseuds/Ramzes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On their wedding day, Daeron Targaryen promised that he'd do his best to make up for losing Mariah Martell her birthright. Only years later does she understands just how much he meant it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Myriah Martell/Daeron II Targaryen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dragons Shine Best in the Sun [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1018194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Lady Most Cherished</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For months, Mariah startled awake at night, sweat pouring off her and her heart beating a wild drum in her chest as her mind reproduced with excruciating preciseness the horror of her last birthing bed. It was not her womb contracting itself back to its usual shape. It was her body reliving the moment of all those hands – one hundred, at least – buried elbow-deep within her as her babe struggled for breath that the just so slight incline of his head in the wrong direction wouldn’t let him take as he could not get out on his own… As she eased herself back against the pillows and did her best not to wake Daeron up, the warm wetness between her legs would start trickling. Blood. All three times before, the bleeding had stopped within a few months, slowly and over time, yet this time it gave no indications of even decreasing.</p><p>“I’ll summon another maester,” Daeron often said and each time, her reply was the same.</p><p>“There isn’t a maester in the Red Keep that hasn’t seen me yet. No one can help me. I just need time to heal.” <em>And I don’t want to give anyone a reason to condemn me as weak or weakening. Unworthy. An ill-fated token of a short-lived peace. </em>She did not need to say it out loud – he already knew. For despite the end of the hostilities, no one could doubt that King Aegon, the Fourth of His Name, considered Dorne an enemy and Mariah herself, even more so. He disdained her influence over his son. Her hold, he called it. She would never let anyone see just how weakened she truly was.</p><p>So she inspected her bedlinens every morning and if she saw red splotches, she immediately burned them. Her Dornish attendants scrubbed her smallclothes themselves. She used her facial paints liberally and hoped they concealed enough. If the careful way the Queen avoided to look at her, lest she betrayed her sympathy was any indication, they did not.</p><p>“At least this time we don’t have a court lady trying to look more important than she is at out expense,” Elaena said and immediately pulled a face. “I can’t believe I said this,” she said softly, with something like sad wonder. “I can’t believe I am grateful for Melissa Blackwood.”</p><p>Mariah could believe it, and how! Back home, she had seen lady wives passed over for mistresses or paramours regularly. In fact, it wasn’t this different here either. Elaena was just painfully young still after all those years of imprisonment and it showed – in her infatuation with Alyn Velaryon and especially in allowing herself to conceive his children. She was smart and an ally but she still had much to learn. Still, time spent in teaching one’s allies was time well-spent.</p><p>“And I am grateful for you,” she said. “For being on our side and not your sister’s.”</p><p>Elaena’s mouth twisted into a sad mockery of a smile. “It’s hard to be on Daena’s side right now,” she said. “She doesn’t know what she wants. Aegon enjoys putting her down as much as he enjoys putting us down and she hates him more than she does your people, yet she only rages because even she knows she can’t turn time back and not become pregnant and thus, easily dismissed for the throne. She just rages.”</p><p>Mariah nodded. She knew this, knew that Daena’s helplessness in the face of it all was even greater than her own, yet she was soothed that the woman discredited herself at every turn. As pained as she had been to surrender her birthright, she was not ready to return Daena’s to her – even this birthright had ever existed to start with. “I’ll go to the site I bought for my latest project,” she said. “A shelter for unwed mothers. I want to see how the construction works go. Do you want to come with me?”</p><p>Elaena’s mouth fell open. “You can’t be serious!” But Mariah did not smile and she burst out laughing. “Unwed mothers! Let it never be said that a harsh childbirth was enough to crush Mariah of Dorne’s spirit! Unwed mothers? How brazen of you!”</p><p>Mariah only smiled.</p><p>But charities, even controversial ones, were only a small part of the life she had to return to. Over time, her goodfather started looking her over quite obviously and she immediately realized that he expected to see her with child once again. Not that he left her in any doubt.</p><p>“We already have the boys, so now we need sisters for them,” he said and his smile grew as the implication hit Mariah immediately and she desperately tried not to swoon. She was rather content with the result of such a union that she had wed but that was the last thing she wanted for her own children. Aegon knew it and used it to taunt her. Ever since she had given birth not to the monster he had desired but to a baby who was undeniably Targaryen in the day his ridiculous wooden dragons had been defeated, he had considered her an open enemy. He would never miss a chance to hurt her.</p><p>But she also wanted daughters, albeit for quite another reason.</p><p>“We need girls so we can bind various Houses to us,” she told Daeron later that night, in the intimacy of their bedchamber. Unlike other noble women, she had never shared her bed with another woman – Daeron was capable and always willing to attend her at any time of night, should she require it. She knew how lucky she was but the truth was, she had never expected it. No one had. She did not expect it for the daughters she would have and for the sons she did have.</p><p>He nodded, staring at her and the child at her breast. Sometimes, Mariah would almost forget that Maekar was awake – he rarely cried, unless made uncomfortable, and ever since realizing that his extremities were his indeed, he had learned to make himself comfortable in any circumstances. If not for the eyes that invariably followed everything that moved in front of him with great focus, and the coordination of his hands and feet, she might have grown worried that the long, hard birth had left him damaged but he was not. He was just self-sufficient, as funny as it was to think so of a babe.</p><p>Just when Mariah was about to say something because Daeron clearly wasn’t going to, he did. “I agree,” he said. “I’ve long wondered why we don’t use marriages to gather people to our side. The existence of dragons was not a good enough excuse even then, I think. And I cannot deny that I’ll enjoy the process of bringing these daughters into being.” He winked at her.</p><p>Her heart fluttered. They had resumed their physical relationship a few weeks ago and while it was still uncomfortable at times, she could not deny the thrill that sang into her blood at hearing this. “Why, my lord,” she breathed. “Even the High Septon is going to tell you it’s not right to woo me as I am holding our child.”</p><p>He did not look repentant in the least. “I am entitled to woo you at any time,” he replied. “You’re my wife and lady.” He paused. “But I want you to take the moon tea every morning still.”</p><p>That was the last thing Mariah had expected! “But why? We already have the boys we need for inheriting, so now…”</p><p>“So now we wait,” he said. “You’re young, Mariah, but four births in just a few years aren’t something that can be overlooked in terms of physical toll. I’d rather wait for you to recover entirely before trying again. Besides, we’re living in a pit of snakes right now. I don’t want a wife who would concern herself only with carrying and delivering children, with threads, needles and charities. I need a partner. Four children are enough for now. It’s good to have them, now we have to make sure that there is a realm for them to inherit…”</p><p>All this was not so different from what he had told his father many times in vain. But there was one difference that was crucial indeed: he had never told Aegon or anyone that he wanted Mariah as an ally. A partner. He wouldn’t dare. Save for Dorne, everyone would take this as a signed admission for unsuitability to manage a farm, let alone seven kingdoms! She swallowed, realizing like never before how true Daeron’s promise to compensate her for the loss of her inheritance was.</p><p>“Some say that women’s worth in this partnership lies in bearing children,” she said, not knowing why and immediately hating herself for saying it.</p><p>Daeron shook his head and looked her in the eye. “I don’t need you to simply <em>bear</em> me children,” he said. “I need you to be here to raise them.”</p><p>In a way, this was the best admission of love that he could have made her, better than any he <em>had</em> made her. She looked down, talked softly to Maekar and just like she expected, he barely stirred when she carried him to the adjacent room and placed him in the soft depths of his cradle. Daeron reached for her nightgown as soon as she returned and this time, the exhilarating taste of what her queenly future would entail made their joining as sweet and full as it had been in those early days when she had first come to love him.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <strong>The End</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>